Record

Churn lid

Churn lid

This wooden butter churn lid was found at Buiston Crannog in Ayrshire. It provides evidence of butter and cheese production between 585 and 630, demonstrating the importance of dairying to the economy.

The lid, of alder, is from a plunge churn. It has a central perforation for a dasher staff.

The processing of milk into butter and cheese is known from the beginning of the 1st millennium AD in Scotland, and may have begun earlier.